V for Victory
by TheDragonWaiting
Summary: "I believe in an idea, an idea that a single individual who has the right heart and the right mind that is consumed with a single purpose, that one man can win a war. Give that one man a group of soldiers with the same conviction, and you can change the world." - Captain America Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark play another dangerous game in a different universe.
1. Chapter 1

**I**

This is a story, in part, about a legend. But he isn't born a legend. He's born in a small town in upstate New York to baker's wife in her last desperate attempt to give her husband a daughter. He's a disappointment to her in every respect; not only another boy but born nearly a month premature. He's always small and sickly, his immune system never fully developed. It's a miracle that he lives at all.

But he does live. And when he's five years old, his father takes him to kindergarten and points out a little girl in a red plaid dress with her dark hair in two braids. He tells his son that he wanted to marry that girl's mother, but she ran off with a Seneca Indian. Later, when he hears the girl sing, the boy understands why.

He watches her, admiring her from afar in school, until one day her father is of many local men killed in an explosion at the lead mine. She isn't the same afterward; she grows gaunt and her voice falls silent. He wants more than anything to help her; thoughts of it consume his every waking moment.

Weeks later, she's at her lowest ebb. His mother finds her rooting through their trash and threatens to call the sheriff. From behind her skirts, he sees everything and his brain works quickly. He takes two loaves of their heartiest bread and blackens them just enough to make them look burnt. When his mother smells the smoke and sees the seemingly ruined bread, she gives him a nice hard cuff across the face and calls him a "worthless creature" before she sends him out to feed the two loaves to the pigs.

But she only watches him throw a few bits of a blackened end towards the sty before the bell on the door calls her to attend to a customer. Then, without so much as glancing the girl's way, he tosses her both loaves and runs back inside. He has no idea what it means to her.

Their eyes meet in school the next day and she sees the black bruise that's formed on his cheekbone. But they don't speak, each of them is too embarrassed; her by her poverty, him by his weakness, her by her mother's illness and him by his mother's cruelty. Perhaps they'll never speak to each other.

But two years later, his cheekbone takes another beating. He's in another fight with a bully; it's almost a hobby of his. Now that both of his brothers are in high school, there's no one to step in when he bites off more than he can chew. Which he does. Constantly. This time, it's Thom Morgan who scribbled insults onto Leevy Jones' chalk drawing and our hero isn't going to stop fighting until she gets an apology. Or he loses consciousness.

Perhaps he would have if the girl hadn't heard the noise from the crowd surrounding the two combatants, if she hadn't rocketed towards it, braid flying behind her. Though she's bigger than our hero, she's nowhere near as big as the bully is and maybe he was just big enough and bad enough to take both of them on, but he never sees her coming. Her blow to the back of his head sends him stumbling forward face-first onto the schoolyard asphalt, nose bloody and crying for his mother (who does eventually come and take him home).

Afterward, she helps they boy up. He can just barely bring himself to meet her gaze. "Thanks. I'm Peeta. Peeta Mellark."

She smiles and replies "I know." And she does, though that's not how she thinks of him. She doesn't tell him that. What would he think if he knew just how often her thoughts drifted to "_the boy with the bread"_?

"I'm Katniss Everdeen." Of course he knows that, he knows more about her than she realizes. But he doesn't open up about that either. Instead he offers to share the lunch he was eating before Leevy Jones' cry interrupted him. She can't bear to take any more from him but she couldn't bear to refuse him either, so they sit in silence and eat cornbeef on rye for what little time remains of lunch.

They each have one friend to share. He introduces her to bubbly Delly Cartwright, the bootmaker's daughter, and friend to everyone, especially Peeta. And she introduces him to friendly, but distant Madge Undersee, dreamer, pianist and daughter of the mayor.

They grow together. She watches him draw and he follows her into the woods. He listens to her sing and tries to teach her how to bake. They can't share everything, he doesn't have the stamina to make it as a hunter and she doesn't have the patience for chess, but they're never apart for long.

It's an unusual relationship, a blue-eyed, blonde boy from town and a dusky girl from the reservation. They're so close for a boy and a girl so young that it might worry the girl's mother, if she paid attention to such things and might worry the boy's if she thought her runt of a son had it in him to get any girl in trouble.

He's accepted in to her family. The girl's sister, Primrose, dotes on him and he teaches her to play games and hold a paintbrush. The busybodies in town whisper that Prim is as much his sister as hers. Her mother sees something in him that she treasured long ago and so she is always happy to have him stay for dinner and well into the evening. He does. Often. Sometimes he has an excuse, he's performing some minor repair around the house or sketching illustrations for their family's plant book. Other times he plays games with Prim or cooks something new with Katniss. He never wants to go home.

His family isn't quite so eager. It's true that his father is always kind to the girl and her sister, whether in trades at the back door or in offering sweets when his wife is gone and they can enter the front. His brothers are happy that their little sibling has a friend but their minds are filled with wrestling, dates with girls and dreams of future glory. All things he can't share in. His mother is a different story; she's more than once forbid him from seeing "that squaw girl". But she knows it's hopeless. Didn't her mother warn her about the boy's father? That she could never truly fill the hole in his heart left by Lily the apothecary's daughter? Love will always drown out such a chorus of doubts, no matter the consequences.

~A~

They grow up with the spectre of another Great War looming over them. When they were younger, people would tell stories about a terrible war across the ocean that killed millions and now everyone who can read the signs says a war is coming in Europe. In a world connected by telegraphs, telephones and airplanes, it is inevitable that the United States will be drawn in as well.

As they get older, he knows that things will change, that she'll start to want the things every other teenage girl wants, things no girl would ever want with him. He makes peace with it. He wants her to be happy more than anything in the world. So when she tells him that her full-blood Indian hunting partner, a boy a couple years older than them named Gale Hawthorne, has asked her to their prom, Peeta tells her to accept. But she rolls her eyes and chides him, telling him that he's not getting out of renting a suit that easily.

She knows that it's selfish. She knows that someday Peeta will want more than she can give. _Children_. Someday he'll settle down with a girl from town that'll realize how special he is. She can see it all unfold before her; the way Delly Cartwright looks at him, the two of them working side-by-side in his father's bakery, little blonde children running around, healthy and loved.

She tries not to resent it. What sort of life could they have together? He'd lose everything he had to look forward to, everything he deserved. Peeta was going to make the best father. Some days, she dreams about that; about the life his children will have. But some nights, she can't help it, she dreams about things with Peeta that she knows she should be ashamed of, of what his hands, so skilled with tools and paintbrushes, could do to her, of how much better it might feel than her own fingers.

When their Prom night is over, he walks her to her door and allows himself to stand on his tip-toes and kiss her once, briefly and chastely. She wants more, so much more than that, but as a small tear slides down her cheek, she bids him goodnight and shuts the door. Before she goes to the bed she shares with her sister, she lies down on the coach and lets the images come forth, a life with Peeta that beckons her and terrifies her at the same time.

In a way it doesn't matter, it's time to say goodbye regardless. They aren't children anymore; they've finished school and their country is now at war. Peeta's brothers, like most of the young able-bodied men, are already gone. She and Gale are both enlisting in the army. Unlike Gale, she has a choice but as much as she hates the thought of war, she wants to help and the money she'll be able to send back will provide for Prim and her mother.

It's ironic that Peeta, who most wants to go, who understands best what they would be fighting for, is the one man that no branch of the service wants anything to do with. He's wearied the army recruiter in town with his entreaties, even traveled to the city to try his luck with others, but the answer from the examining physicians is always the same. He's too small, asthmatic, too often sick and unsteady on his feet. The great war machine has no use for him.

Katniss tries to comfort him each time he's rejected. "Peeta, you can do other things to help. You're so smart, and old Mr. Undersee says that your German is perfect. Maybe you could make war films or something. Everyone knows you have a way with words."

But he'll hear none of it. "Words no one will listen to coming from a man who isn't sharing the same hardships! The last thing we need is one more man telling other people to go and do his fighting for him. Rye and Ban are over there, you and Gale will be soon. But I'm just some cripple who has to sit here and hear about it on the radio."

"Would that be so bad? Would it be so terrible if you were somewhere safe?" She shouts, her feelings rising to the surface along with the blood that's flushing her cheeks.

He looks up at her with soft blue eyes and asks "How would you feel if I was headed off to war and you couldn't go? If all you could do was sit here and wait to hear my name on a casualty list?"

Her tears are her only answer.

When it's finally time for her to board a train to the city, she hugs Prim and her mother first, saving her embrace of Peeta for last. And when she knows he won't expect it, won't be in any position to stop her, she leans down and kisses him the way she's wanted to for years. Because she might not make it back, because someday, when he's married and surrounded by his perfect family, she wants him to remember her, because she's about to jump on a train taking her far away and she won't have to deal with the consequences.

**Notes: I started writing this when it just wouldn't let go of me on the fourth of July. I'd thought about the similarities between Peeta Mellark and Steve Rogers before but the fact that they're both blonde, blue-eyed and selfless doesn't really make for a story in and of itself. The idea for the story really started when I read Nonemoreblack's "No Surprises". Every love story is, in some sense, about the obstacles that prevent two people in love from being together. The idea of a Peeta that grow up with some sort of obvious physical defect and how that might have made him feel presents just such an obstacle. **


	2. Chapter 2

**II**

The Women's Army Auxiliary Corps puts Katniss through a rigorous training program and finds that she would make a fantastic soldier. She's an excellent shot once she makes the adjustment from her father's old hunting bow to a rifle. She can move silently over any surface and conceal herself behind the smallest pieces of cover. Furthermore she has her bravery and grace under pressure to make her an ideal comrade-at-arms. However the fine young ladies of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps are under no circumstances placed directly in combat and so our brave little soldier finds herself assigned to be the secretary of the cantankerous Colonel Abernathy.

Colonel Haymitch Abernathy is another person the army doesn't feel comfortable placing in combat. Although he's a genuine war hero, the horrors of what he saw in the Great War have left him with an embarrassing fondness for whisky and a certain disillusionment about the chain of command. Instead, he's been placed in charge of some of the army's less-promising special weapon's projects, among them, the development of a serum that will turn ordinary men into super-soldiers.

It's the brain-child of Herr Doktor Friedrich Aurelius, a refugee from Nazi oppression and the world's foremost expert on transformative biology. He claims that with the perfect balance of stimuli: hormones, nutrients, gamma radiation, he can transform a man at the cellular level, make him as strong as the strongest man who's ever lived and as fast as the fastest, a perfect physical specimen the likes of which the world has never seen.

One might imagine that such a serum would work on anyone. After all, what does it matter what stood before if it is all to be rebuilt? But the serum has failed on previous test subjects and now Dr. Aurelius is dissatisfied with every candidate brought to him. The army sends him men who are strong, men like Robert Cato and John Marvel, but he scorns strength. What value does muscle have to a man who can manufacture it? Dr. Aurelius wants a man who can overcome fear and strong men have had little to fear in their lives.

Above all, Dr. Aurelius believes that a successful transformation requires commitment; that the previous attempts have failed at least in part because the candidates held some part of themselves back. A successful transformation requires the subject to give up everything, to let go of himself to become what others want him to be. The only motivation he can see for such an act is the desire to become what the world needs, a guardian in dark times.

Colonel Abernathy listens to all this with barely disguised distain. He's seen humanity at its worst and he bluntly tells Aurelius that he's simply making excuses for the serum's previous failures. "Doc, you're like a crazy woman who blames the whole race of man every time another boyfriend throws in the towel and moves on to greener pastures. When the man you're looking for arrives, he'll be seated at the right hand of God and he won't need your damn magical concoction!"

But before Dr. Aurelius can reply, Katniss intervenes. "You're wrong."

"Sweetheart, I don't want to hear any Florence Nightingale nonsense about-"

"You're wrong! There is a man who can do this. I know him. We went to school together." She doesn't add "_He saved my life._" or "_I love him._"

Despite their sharp tongues, Colonel Abernathy and Private Everdeen have grown to respect each other. Perhaps they each see something familiar when their grey eyes lock. So he takes his assistant at her word and sends men to bring the great Peeta Mellark down from his father's bakery.

The response from the physicians who examine him is the same: completely unfit for service. But Haymitch Abernathy has little respect for the medical profession. "Doctors don't know shit," he remarks after another swig from his ever-present hip-flask.

So for the first time, Peeta Mellark makes it past the examination and is granted an interview, which Colonel Abernathy conducts while Dr. Aurelius and Private Everdeen observe from behind one-way glass.

"Peeta Mellark, eh. Sounds German."

"My family's Dutch."

"That quack measures you at 4'10" and 98 pounds; is that right?"

"About."

"Well it's really something else just how many of you little Dutch boys we have here in the great state of New York. Did you know there's a Peeta Mellark from Queens who struck out with a recruiter three months ago? Another from Staten Island, even one from Westchester. To judge from these papers, there must be at least eight men of that name in the five boroughs alone. For that matter, did you know that it's a federal offense to lie on these enlistment forms?"

"There must be some mistake. Maybe you have the wrong file…"

Haymitch laughs heartily. "As crazy as it sounds, I'm beginning to think that I have the right one. Let's set these _technicalities_ aside for the moment, boy. We got men with every kind of phony injury trying to get out of this war, and with good reason. But you just won't quit trying to get into it. Why?"

"Does it matter?"

"It matters to me. So spit it out, boy. What is it? You want to show your girl what a tough guy you are, kill yourself a few Huns?"

"I don't have a girl." Katniss flinches ever so slightly at that. "And I don't _want_ to kill anyone. I don't like bullies."

Something about that answer must please the colonel because he places Peeta in training with the others. Peeta is shocked when Katniss greets him has he exits the interrogation room but there is little time for catching up. Instead, Katniss gives him a hug for reassurance and then steps aside and lets Dr. Aurelius explain the purpose of the program.

~A~

His training goes about as well as you might expect. Peeta becomes winded from even the shortest runs. His allergies leave him with rashes every time they crawl through the woods. He can scarcely jump high enough to clear a playing card. He's a persistent climber but he'll never lift anything heavier than himself.

Katniss feels her heart pulled in every different direction. If this works, Peeta will go to war and whatever else this serum does, it won't make him bulletproof. It was right to bring him here, because it's what he wanted, but it frightens her, that she might have led him into danger. And yet she can't regret it. It feels so good to have Peeta here with her; she'd missed him so much even in these few short months. He tells her about home, whatever details hadn't made it into his or Prim's letters. She tells him about the army, her training, what the colonel is like. They don't speak about the kiss.

Pressure comes down from above to make another attempt. And Senator Plutarch Heavensbee takes a personal interest in the project but he doesn't understand the purpose of including Peeta. It embarrassing; they can't even find a uniform small enough to fit him. He says as much to Colonel Abernathy and asks why they feel the need to include so unpromising a candidate.

Seemingly displeased with this line of questioning, Haymitch puts the cap back on his flask and stows it in his jacket before rifling through his coat pockets for a hand grenade. Why a colonel should have such a thing in his pocket defies explanation. As does his behavior when he casually pulls the pin and tosses the grenade into his group of trainees, shouting "Grenade!"

They all duck behind whatever cover they can find. That is, all but Peeta, who throws himself on top it, cradling it to his chest to save his comrades as he awaits the inevitable. But it doesn't come. The grenade does not explode. There's an eerie silence before the colonel turns to the senator and remarks "Well, he can't jump for beans, but he sure can fall down, can't he?"

For once Colonel Abernathy and Dr. Aurelius are in agreement, Private Peeta Mellark is their next candidate.

~A~

Katniss takes him to a secret laboratory in Brooklyn, an underground facility where Dr. Aurelius and Dr. Brian Thomas "Beetee" Goulding house the machinery which will manufacture their super weapons. It's an important occasion and Senator Heavensbee and a member of his staff come up from Washington to see it.

When the appointed hour arrives, Peeta is placed inside a sarcophagus which contains automated syringes to deliver the serum and photoelectric tubes to provide the gamma rays afterward. He doesn't betray any trace of fear before this august assembly but Katniss squeezes his hand anyway. It makes her slightly less afraid.

The injections go smoothly enough, but when Beetee's enormous generators begin flooding the chamber with gamma rays, Peeta's screams of pain drive Katniss over the edge. Before she understands what's happening, she's pulled Beetee out of his wheelchair and is screaming "Shut it off!"

But he doesn't. Because Peeta's voice rises from the chamber. "No! It's OK, I can do this!"

He can. It hurts, but what is pain to a boy who grew up with thin bones and soft skin, a boy whose lungs burn when he tries to run and whose eyes sting in the presence of everything from perfume to gasoline? He learned about pain before he learned to read, learned from the ring on his mother's left hand and the wooden spoons in the kitchen. His tongue grew agile as he learned to explain away the bruises at school. If Dr. Aurelius was looking for a man who had mastered fear, he found one that had had every reason to dread what life would bring but somehow always held confidence that it would become good again.

Eventually, it's over. The mechanisms of the sarcophagus slowly begin to grind open and Katniss can barely stand to watch. What will emerge from that metal shell? Will it even look anything like her Peeta? But she's still the first one there to greet him as he stumbles out into the light.

At first she's staring at his chest because her brain hasn't yet realized that now she'll have to crane her neck upward to look at his face. Then she's staring at his chest because it's mesmerizing. For a brief moment, she and Peeta are alone in the room and with her hands pressed to his chest she stares up at his face and sees that that part of him, at least, hasn't changed a bit. His jaw, his cheekbones, those eyelashes, everything is just the way she sees it as she closes her eyes at night. Of course then a hand on her shoulder causes her to realize that they aren't alone and she pulls her hands down to her sides, embarrassed.

Who knows what either of them would have said to the other, had they not been interrupted? But the joy in the room is short-lived. Without any warning sign, Alma Coin, the grey-eyed, stone-faced woman on Senator Heavensbee's staff calmly throws a dart into the neck of Dr. Aurelius.

She somehow escapes the press of bodies and eludes even the hunter's instincts of Katniss Everdeen. But this new Peeta Mellark, re-created by some amalgamation of science and willpower, dogs her through the streets of New York, outrunning cars, dodging bullets and finally pulling her out of a submarine like a loaf from an oven. But it's too late, she bites down on a poisoned capsule and her story ends.

The same poison was on the dart that struck Dr. Aurelius and he died nearly instantly. At first it's a matter of small concern to the Army, however much it grieves those who knew him. Now that the formula is complete, the army takes the project out of Col. Abernathy's unsteady hands and places it in several sets of more enthusiastic ones. But something is missing. None of the subsequent attempts are successful. Either the good doctor's notebook has omitted some vital step or perhaps there really was something to his ideas about the nature of man. In any case, Peeta Mellark is the only super soldier that his country will have for the time being and one man, no matter his virtues, is not an army.

**Notes: I love Haymitch. **


	3. Chapter 3

**III**

But just as soon as the late Dr. Aurelius' super solider program falls out of favor with the army, it gains renewed patronage from Senator Heavensbee. He can see what the generals can't; that though the serum can't create an army, its one success might be able to fill the war chests needed to pay one.

It's the largest sale of war bonds in the country's history. He calls it the "V for Victory Tour" and christens Peeta Mellark "Captain America". Peeta is clothed in red white and blue by the brilliant young designer Michael Cinna and his lovely assistant, Portia. And he learns to carry an American flag shield on his left arm and throw a fake punch with his right, effortlessly knocking out Adolf Hitler for crowds of children and the Ladies Auxiliary VFW.

Katniss was right about him; he's always been good with words. But now he learns to incorporate a certain physicality into the act, learns to use his new body to awe the crowd with feats of strength. For though he's grown in size, his strength has grown greater yet. The audience has seen men bigger than his 6'6" and 275 pounds but they've never seen one who can lift a motorcycle with three women sitting on it or bend steel bars in his hands.

Senator Heavensbee and the USO don't leave it at that. They add an entourage of fresh-faced, red-blooded American girls to sing and dance as part of the show. As they're trained to kick high and fitted with uniforms of their own, a popular Broadway composer is brought in to pen an ode to "The Star-Spangled Man with a Plan". After one meeting with his new troupe that lasts approximately eighty-five seconds and involves three swigs of whisky, Col. Abernathy gives instructions that all matters relating to the girls are to be directed to his secretary.

Katniss hates them. She hates their so-called singing. She hates how often she has to reprimand Glenda "Glimmer" Zimmerman and Clove Garner for getting handsy with Peeta. She hates how much taller and fairer and prettier they are. Most of all she hates that Peeta is always too nice to shoo them away, no matter how annoying their simpering gets.

The lone exception is Madge Undersee, her oldest friend. Whatever higher power decreed that two girls from the same small town should wind up on the tour, Katniss gives thanks for a friend when she's sorely in need of one.

And in time, she adds another. Rue Fontaine, a pretty young girl from Georgia with big bright brown eyes and skin the color of molasses, joins the tour as the assistant of Effie Trinket, the brightly-colored taskmistress brought in the keep the girls on schedule and out of trouble. She's as quiet as Madge and Katniss and the three girls confide to each other in whispers over lunch. One day Rue admits that she'd hoped to be one of the girls in the show, hoped just that maybe things had changed enough for them to put one colored girl up on stage. They hadn't. The men in charge had told her matter-of-factly that "There aren't many negroes that have the money to buy war bonds."

Faced with this painful admission, Katniss tries to offer a secret of equal value. "I grew up with P-, with 'Captain America'. I knew other girls would notice him eventually. But I didn't know it would be like this. I know it's wrong; it's so wrong, but sometimes I wish… I wish things were like they were before. I wish he…" She can't say it. How can she deny him the happiness of being strong when he labored for so long under so many infirmities?

Without knowing anything about the origin of Captain America, Rue's agile mind can fill in the blanks. "So he wasn't always…?"

Madge snorts softly from her perch on Katniss' desk. "Only to Katniss." She continues "She, on the other hand, had a host of admirers: Darius Cray, the sheriff's boy, Gale Hawthorne, the Indian deer hunter, and yes, the baker's youngest son."

Katniss stares at Madge with curious eyes. There was something in the way she said Gale's name, some trace of bitterness and now a thousand tiny memories from times when she and Gale came to Madge's back door to sell strawberries prick at her mind. She ignores them; she's more concerned with what Madge said about Peeta. "He never…"

"Did you ask?"

Madge must know that she didn't before. It's absurd. And now? It would have been enough of a scandal for a boy from good family to marry a half-breed. What would the war bond buying public say about Captain America engaging in _messagination_? All that frustration boils to the surface. "What difference does it make now?"

They don't speak of it again.

~A~

While Captain America's popularity continues to grow, eventually the pockets of his many fans are beginning to be a little too light for the senator's taste and so the tour heads to Europe to entertain the troops and allow time for the sheep to regrow their wool.

You might think that heading closer to the front would please Peeta. But as he and Katniss lay side-by-side in a field of dandelions on the evening before their departure, he remarks "I shouldn't complain. I mean, don't get me wrong, I want to help. I just wish there was some way of doing it while still being me. I wish there was some way I could show all these congressmen and generals and captains of industry that I'm not just some piece in a game they're playing, that they don't own me."

She turns her head toward him and reaches up to touch the crown of flowers she wove for him before she says "If people got to know you, they'd fall in love."

Their eyes meet and for a moment each of them wonders if they'll kiss. But he turns away, ashamed at his own desire. It was bad enough before, taking advantage of Katniss' kindness. Now Gale is across the ocean, fighting for his country and his life and Peeta remains, in this body that still feels foreign to him, his lips inches away from taking advantage of that absence. He wonders what it would have been like, if he'd always been tall and strong. Would things be different between him and Katniss? Freed from her pity of him, would she have allowed herself to be more than a friend to Gale? Or could he have won her heart fairly with the silver tongue that everyone tells him he has?

As the sun sets, she silently tries to imagine being like other girls. If her father hadn't been taken from her, if her mother hadn't retreated into her own little world, if she hadn't been forced to be a mother for her little sister, would she be brave enough to want children? If she were like that, whole, would Peeta still have pulled away?

They don't have long to stew over their conflicted feelings. The flight across the Atlantic takes them to Italy in no time at all.

~A~

Sadly Captain America's first show in front of an audience with no women or children is not an unqualified success. The soldiers listen respectfully, just as they do for the other visiting dignitaries with their clean faces and honeyed words. But when the tour's brief stop-over at the front is over, Captain America will go back home and the GIs will go back to their billets. No marvel of physique or carefully-worded speech can alter that.

Thankfully the girls prove to be far more popular. When Peeta cuts his speech short and sends them back out, the men applaud with genuine enthusiasm.

Katniss and Rue find him in the back sketching something which turns out to be a masterful drawing of a chimp riding a unicycle, holding an umbrella in one hand and carrying an American flag shield on the other arm. Katniss tries to sound sincere when she says "They'll warm up to you." But she's an awful liar.

Peeta shakes his head. "They're soldiers. This is their element. But I'm not a real soldier. I'm just Senator Heavensbee's Vaudeville puppet. "

After glancing at each of them, Rue speaks up. "Katniss told me about the doctor. Obviously I didn't get a chance to meet him. But I know this isn't what he wanted for you."

Peeta nods without looking up from the sketch. "It was personal for him. These ideas the Nazis have, about supermen, the master race. He wanted to roll all that up and light a cigar with it."

Peeta does have a natural flair for moving a crowd; perhaps in time he would have won over the soldiers with words. But his time on stage was cut short.

~A~

It started when Katniss found one of the USO girls, Annie Cresta, a sweet girl with dark hair and green eyes from sunny California, crying behind the mess hall. She'd heard a rumor that the 107th infantry, stationed nearby, had suffered heavy losses and that nearly two hundred of them had been captured and spirited away to some fortified island just off the coast. She'd also found out that her sweetheart, Finnick Odair, was one of the prisoners.

Katniss tore through the classified documents on Col. Abernathy's desk until she found them, the reports of the attack, the army's response, the list of those still missing. It didn't take her long to find the name of the one man she knew in the 107th. _Private First Class Gale Hawthorne._

The colonel watches her sob from the doorway to his office. He doesn't bother to reprimand her. Instead he offers the only advice he has left after all these years. "Give up, sweetheart. The island's impenetrable. It'd take two divisions of marines to take it, and a battleship for supporting fire. Even if the men upstairs would commit all that, we'd lose five men for every one we rescued."

"So what? We just give up? Just leave them there?"

"This isn't a hunting trip, sweetheart! Not everyone makes it home."

They scream at each other for what seems like hours but Peeta doesn't listen for long. He can already understand every facet of the situation and what Col. Abernathy said was true, the only force large enough to take a fortress like that would have no hope of surprise. As soon as Col. Abernathy's hypothetical marines were assembled, the island would be reinforced. But there's another possibility, if you look it from the right angle. A bank vault door that couldn't be blown open with a ton of dynamite could be slid open on its oiled hinges by a little boy. Provided that he was inside.

That night he carries a rowboat to the beach. It seems as if no one misses him.

It's an eight hour trip at what the army manual on the subject lists as the vessel's maximum speed, but Peeta figures he can make it in two. He doesn't take much with him and doesn't pay much attention to how much anything weighs. Everything feels light to him now.

His senses are sharper now. He doesn't miss the constant rustling sound coming from the back of the boat; he simply assumes that something wasn't packed as securely as he thought. When he finally takes a break from rowing long enough to walk back and pull up the tarp… he feels like a prize fool.

As Katniss stares up at him, she tilts her chin up defiantly. "I don't care if I can't outrun a deer or pick up a Buick, _Captain America_. I can help you!"

She realizes that she probably doesn't look like much. She's wearing hooded full-length coat and a holster for her side-arm while she clutches one of her father's old hunting bows. She hasn't been issued a rifle and besides, the bow is quieter. And if 'Mad' Jack Churchill can do it, why can't she? And she can help! He never heard her following him, never caught sight of her as she clung to the shadows behind him on his way to the beach. There has to be something she can do. And though she doesn't say it, she couldn't possibly stay behind, not when she could lose both of them.

Peeta doesn't want her anywhere near this; he would never risk her for anything. But there's nothing he can do, even if he turned back now, how could he stop her from slipping away and going off without him? So after he resumes rowing, he lays everything out for her.

He's wearing his Captain America suit and carrying his shield. He figures that there can't be much more than forty men garrisoning the island, no general would waste more to guard a few hundred prisoners. There's no need to, unless someone can organize a breakout, convince the men to risk their lives, convince them that if they all work together, they can overpower their armed adversaries. Perhaps the shield could offer what a gun couldn't. _Hope_.

His paddling takes them swiftly to the island where sentries are on the lookout for craft far larger than a mere rowboat. He knocks out a man in a _Kriegsmarine_ uniform as she shoots another who tries to run. Her arrow goes cleanly through the heart, killing him instantly. Peeta tries to suppress any feelings about that and concentrate on binding the hands of the man he punched, only to find that he's still getting used to his new strength; that man is just as dead.

They can feel their hearts hammering in their chests as they're suddenly possessed with a desire to get back on the boat and get as far away from the island as possible. These are their first kills, these men that had the ill-luck to be born in the wrong country. She's killed animals before, with a bow or snares. He's killed pigs in his father's sty. This is different, more different than they could have imagined.

As they make their way off the beach and approach the fortress at the center of the island, they find more guards but they're strangely-garbed. Their uniforms have the cut of the SS but instead of black, they're a bright white with the symbol of some multi-headed lizard as the shoulder patch. Katniss counts twelve heads but can make no sense out of it. Peeta recalls the legend of Hercules fighting a multi-headed lizard. _Hydra_. He liked the stories about Hercules as a child; now he feels he understands them better, but doesn't like them nearly as much.

Quickly they slip past another pair of guards and find themselves in the fortress itself, making their way down until they reach the cells. Peeta catches a guard by surprise and strikes him across the temple, hoping to leave this one alive. The men marvel at him as he opens a few cells with the keys. He hands that key to one of them, along with the side-arms of the two German sailors, and asks which of the others opens the door to the armory.

"Well, that one, but you need two of them turned simultaneously to get past that door. The armory's there. And the box."

At that, Katniss' head turns. She'd already asked several men where to find Gale. The box doesn't sound like any place for a man who loves wide open spaces.

Peeta just shakes his head. "Stay here, I'll be back."

"Okay chief, but what do we call you?"

"You call me "sir", sergeant. I'm Captain America."

Peeta reaches the door with Katniss on his heels. There's no time to look for a second key. Instead he turns the three-handled wheel on the door until the steel bolt which locks it finally gives in and breaks. There are two doors in the room on the other side and he wrenches the one on the right off of its hinges and finds himself staring at Gale Hawthorne's back. Or what's left of it.

The red cuts left by the lash are bad enough, but the whipping was severe enough to leave the flesh completely shredded in places. Peeta hears Katniss shout "Gale!" from behind him as he steps forward. Katniss rushes forward to cradle Gale's face as Peeta frees him from his bonds and lays him down on his stomach.

Gale is only semi-conscious but he stirs a little in response to Katniss' sobs. "Hey, Catnip." Too tired to be shocked by his friend's sudden appearance, he tries to explain, "One of the big shots here has a bit of a thing about 'bloodthirsty red savages'. Guess he read too many of those Shatterhand books."

After the briefest kiss, Katniss strokes his hair and tells him that he's going to be alright until Gale speaks again. "Who's your friend, Catnip?"

"It's Peeta, Gale. We're here to rescue you."

Gale stares up at the giant next to her with unfocused eyes and lets out a laugh that triggers a coughing fit. "In your dreams, Catnip."

Peeta wants nothing more than to get out of this room, to go somewhere where he doesn't have to see Gale's pain reflected in Katniss' face, the connection between them. "It's a long story, Gale. I'll tell you when we get out of here." Then to Katniss, "Just stay with him, I need to go get the armory open."

He doesn't give her a chance to respond. In long strides, he's out the door and when he's face-to-face with the armory door, he has no difficulty wrenching it open with all of the frustration built up inside him.

~A~

Things move quickly after that. He distributes the weapons among the freed prisoners and the guards are ill-prepared for their onslaught. Though the men of Hydra remain better-armed, they are vastly outnumbered and this strange man in his bright clothes has instilled in the prisoners a reckless courage.

As the men in white collapse with their uniforms stained red or else simply throw down their arms as they see the struggle is hopeless, their leader, a man clothed in black, abandons the struggle and flees upward, climbing the central staircase two steps at a time.

But Peeta is swifter than he is. He bounds after this mysterious figure and closes the gap just as he hears some sort of automated door close behind him.

The man turns to face his pursuer and for the first time Peeta gets a good look at him. He's dressed in black from head to toe, but white gleams from the mask on his face, which is decorated with a skull, and on his chest, where there are two crossed bones, giving him the appearance of being draped in the Jolly Roger. _Crossbones_.

In seconds, they've each taken the measure of the other and Captain America's opponent lets loose a flurry of bolts from a small crossbow in his right hand. These bolts might have found their mark under other circumstances, but the American flag shield ably repels them.

That's simply a prelude to the main act. As Crossbones draws a pistol from his hip with his left hand, Captain America can see his death staring him down in that skull mask. But he's the faster man and the shield leaves his hand before his opponent can fire. Just as the shield impacts the left shoulder, a shot rings out, off the mark, shooting Peeta cleanly through the thigh rather the heart.

But there are no more projectiles to throw and there is no way to close the gap on one leg. As Crossbones drops his crossbow and uses his freed right hand to draw another pistol, it appears that the super soldier experiment is coming to a close.

Perhaps it would have, but what neither man sees is that a woman has arrived, breathless and red-faced, to observe their struggle. As she sees the man in black raise his pistol, she looses her arrow. It has a great distance to fly upward from the courtyard in which she stands observing the two costumed men on the parapet.

It flies swiftly and before the trigger can be pulled, an arrow pierces the hand of Crossbones and another, an instant later, goes right through his eye, just like the squirrels the girl used to trade with the baker.

Peeta doesn't have to look down to see who shot those arrows. It's her weapon and who else could hit those marks at that distance? But he does look down; he sees her staring up at him, tears streaming down her cheeks, her face filled with a fierce protectiveness and blazing anger.

As he limps down the staircase, he's met by a flying bundle of bloody clothes and braided hair. There are a million things she wants to say to him. _What were you thinking running off like that? I was so worried about you! You could have been killed!_

But there isn't time for that now. He's Captain America, this cheering crowd is for him. So she dries her tears, does what she can to set her feelings aside. She releases him from her death-grip of a hug, turns to the crowd and shouts "Let's hear it for Captain America!"

**Notes: If you think about it, Captain America the phony war hero selling war bonds and Katniss and Peeta the fake couple selling their lack of rebellion against the Capitol bear a certain eerie similarity. But I was kind of annoyed that the Captain America film decided to just ignore the fact that the WWII army was racially segregated so the inclusion of Rue is kind of a nod to that. Even in the 40's, I'm not sure that anyone really would have cared that Katniss was a half-caste but I think it makes for a better story if she thinks that they do.**


	4. Chapter 4

**IV**

It would be difficult to imagine a greater degree of astonishment than that found at the headquarters of the Mediterranean Theatre of Operations when news of the rescue reached it. Captain America, or as many knew him, "That guy that lifts the motorcycle with the dames on it" had absconded with that drunk Haymitch Abernathy's WAC secretary, captured a fortress held by the enemy and freed about two-hundred POWs from the 107th. The reaction would have been about the same had news reached them that Bob Hope had grabbed Dorothy Lamour, jumped into a jeep, sped off and returned having routed the _Afrika Korps_.

To Senator Plutarch Heavensbee, it's the ultimate propaganda coup. But the matter is no longer in his hands. The same impetus that led to the creation of the Rangers in imitation of the British Commandos lends itself to the creation of another small force utilizing stealth and surprise. Captain America is permitted to choose his own men, forming what Senator Heavensbee calls his "Star Squad", but the name is the only concession to propaganda value.

The Army seeks a solution to a problem it can only dimly perceive, for it learns little from the men in white that were captured; the vast majority know almost nothing beyond propaganda slogans. They call themselves Hydra after the creature of legend and each cell is self-contained and told nothing about the others. Beyond their leader, the man they knew as Crossbones, the guards captured in the fortress know only of the supreme leader, Cornelius Snow.

Snow is an enigma onto himself. He is brilliant scientist, prized by the Third Reich for his knowledge of genetics, but he and the General Staff have an uneasy relationship; they see him as little more than a madmen hell-bent on wasting resources chasing pipe-dreams. Hydra is a compromise of sorts, an organization separate from the _Wehrmacht_ that Snow can have as his own fiefdom the way Himmler has the SS and Göring the _Luftwaffe_, but limited in scope, charged with the development of new methods of biological warfare and genetic manipulation. To the General Staff, it is a colossal waste of resources but to Adolf Hitler, it holds the key to unlocking the potential of the master race.

To eliminate this threat without public exposure of it, Peeta chooses men he can trust. From those who he fought alongside in the breakout, he chooses Sgt. Alfred Boggs from Maine, the least flappable soldier in the army. His people are old New England stock and his demeanor, even under the greatest pressure, is that of a man calmingly pulling up lobster pots in a cold, drizzling rain.

For their marksmanship, he selects Cpls. Frank Mitchell from Indiana and Ryan Holmes from Texas. Their constant disagreements, on everything from food and music to where to lay the blame for the Civil War are simply a layer of smoke over an unbreakable bond of friendship.

Seemingly to ameliorate the taciturnity of the others, Peeta also recruits Pvt. Finnick Odair, former surf bum from southern California. Finnick isn't the world's greatest shot; he's far happier in a bayonet drill than on a rifle range, but what he lacks in aim, he more than makes up for in daring and good-nature. He's rarely at a loss for words and keeps an open mind in stark contrast to the tunnel-vision of those used to looking at the world through a scope.

To many, these four seem sufficient, but Peeta tests the army's patience by waiting several weeks for his last recruit. A super soldier's leg can heal completely overnight, even from bullet wounds. But a common man has a slow recovery when his back has been so badly damaged.

When the time is right, Peeta lays everything out for Gale, the small size of the unit, the need for secrecy, what little they know about their target and what use he can find for a man of stealth. In the end, the proposition is simple. "So what do you say, Gale? Are you ready to follow 'The Star-Spangled Man with a Plan'?"

Gale snorts and shakes his head. "Hell no."

He continues evenly, "But a guy from upstate, a guy whose father always traded fairly with me, the only white boy in school who didn't give me a bunch of that 'injun' crap. I'll follow him."

~A~

The Army also sees fit to shield Captain America with something more than the American flag. He's sent to Beetee's laboratory where he's given a new uniform undergirded with bulletproof scales of a secretly-developed alloy. Though initially thought useless by the army, the scales are painted red, white and blue now that they've found a man strong enough to bear up under a suit of them. To console him for the loss of his old decoration of a shield, which fell into the sea after ricocheting off of Crossbones' shoulder, Beetee gives him a new round shield made of another alloy. He calls it Vibranium; it was made by infusing a steel-titanium alloy with a solution of halide ions at temperatures near absolute zero. The shield is a marvel, it reflects the kinetic energy of anything that strikes it, from bullets to explosive shrapnel. Sadly, just as the army envisioned manufacturing tanks with Vibranium armor, Beetee discovered that he couldn't reproduce the process; subsequent prototypes were simply common disks of steel. Like Captain America himself, the shield is one of a kind.

Of course there is no place in Peeta's plan for putting Katniss Everdeen in danger. But they say a man in love is a fool and it is certainly foolishness to think that he could leave her behind. Cinna is enchanted with her, and Beetee indulgent. Together they make her a costume of her own, lacking the heavy scales of Peeta's suit but still resistant to many forms of weaponry, particularly fire, which passes over it as harmlessly as autumn leaves. To this Beetee adds a bow shoots straight and true, but will become active only with a command spoken by her and her alone. He makes arrows which are tipped with more of his wondrous alloys or else explosives that will detonate on impact.

She was never much for fancy costumes before. Even if she could have afforded the flashy dresses that the girls in town wore, she was happier in jeans and her father's old hunting jacket. The costume is for Peeta, so he knows that he isn't alone, isn't the only one that has to put on a show. He's been so distant lately, but she doesn't know what to say, how to reassure Peeta that she'll never leave him, that she'll never ask for more than he's willing to give, that just being with him is enough.

Peeta is unaware of any of this until he makes his way to her room with a heavy heart and she knows he plans to say goodbye. From the other side of the door, she bids him to come in and make himself at home. She changes clothes from behind a screen and whatever he hoped in his fevered imagination that she would emerge wearing, it could not have prepared him for the truth.

She is clad from head to toe in a black suit, the material of which appears, on close inspection, to be tiny feathers. Her face and braided hair are hidden by a small mask and a hood and each arm bears a small extension from the shoulder to the wrist, almost giving the appearance of wings. These hold the only ornamentation; vertical white bands which stand out in the center.

Peeta cannot believe his eyes as he murmurs "Katniss…"

She tilts her chin up defiantly as she replies "That's fine for here, _Peeta_. But when we're on a mission, _Captain America,_ you can call me 'Mockingbird'."

~A~

Their mission begins in Italy, where they search for signs of Hydra, reports of men in white, the use of poisons, hideous experiments on the undesirables in concentration camps. It's a change for everyone, but no one more than Haymitch Abernathy. For the first time since the last war, he commands men who will be sent into combat. He wakes at night with terrible visions; his hands shake for want of liquor. He constantly wonders if he's capable of doing this, if he can avoid breaking when the inevitable comes and one of the men under his command is killed.

Or worse, a woman. Haymitch has grown so close to his female charge that every risk she takes is like a knife grazing his ribs. In some ways he seems more like a father to her than her commanding officer. It doesn't escape her notice.

It starts when she notices a bracelet on the colonel's wrist. Something about it scratches at the back of her mind, something from her childhood on the reservation. She asks Gale about it and she can feel a distance between them, risen from ceremonies she never attended, things her father didn't live to share with her, a desire to belong that she never felt, a world-view that draws a line between 'us' and 'them'. But there has never been any 'us' for her. Gale looks away when he responds, "It's hemp, Catnip. It means he's Tuscarora."

The odds are staggering. An Iroquois half-caste joins the army and is assigned to be the secretary for a man from another Iroquois tribe. She doesn't believe in that kind of coincidence, so once again she finds herself at his desk, rifling through his belongings for information. Eventually she finds it, a photograph, yellowed with age, two blonde teenage girls pose for the camera; they could be from anywhere. But they weren't. They were from upstate New York, because one of them is Katniss' mother.

It's the second time that he's caught her at his desk, pawing his things, but he never seems angry about it. Katniss doesn't know how long she's been staring at the photograph when Haymitch's voice startles her. "The other girl's name was Maysilee Donner. I knew her before the war; I used to come through sometimes, making deliveries with my old man. We both wound up in Flanders; the same time I joined the Army, she went in as a nurse. She ended up in a TB ward; got hit, couldn't shake it."

He continues almost apologetically, "I never met your mother but Maysilee used to talk about her all the time; told me that she'd married a Senaca named Everdeen."

Katniss nods slowly. "You knew." And then looking up at him, "Why?"

He doesn't meet her gaze. "I couldn't save her. I thought maybe I could get you out of this alive. She and your mother… It's something she would want me to do."

~A~

Eventually they find the information that they're looking for, a facility in Greece, small, but well-guarded, containing research facilities that even Hydra soldiers only speak of in whispers. Their plan of assault is simple, if terrifying. Peeta causes a distraction, attacking the sentries alone, drawing more and more of the garrison into the fray, attracting more and more bullets which he deflects with his shield. Eventually, he's surrounded and the agents of Hydra are eager to take him prisoner.

But before they can reach him, shots ring out. From their hiding places in the surrounding forest, Katniss, the Star Squad and a battalion of infantry commandeered for the purpose, all pour fire down on the men in white. They surrender quickly.

With the vast majority of the garrison killed or captured, the men of the regular army are left behind to avoid exposing them to possibly infectious biological weapons. Captain America, the Mockingbird and the Star Squad advance into the main building to deal with any last pockets of resistance.

The first thing that greets them is the stench; though no fighting has taken place there, the entire building smells like blood. As they advance cautiously through the corridors, the eerie calm is broken by a hissing sound from behind them. It could be coming from steaming pipes or tanks of liquid nitrogen.

But it isn't. They find themselves suddenly face-to-face with the source. They appear human from a sufficient distance for they walk on two legs. But only when they're standing still; when they move, their alien nature is obvious. As they move closer, they appear to be as much lizard as man, covered in white scales with blunted features and tails whipping behind them.

They aren't bulletproof and at first their numbers are few and any that manage to close the gap are thrown back with a blow from Captain America's shield. But as their numbers swell, ammunition runs short and our heroes are forced to retreat.

When they finally come to a tunnel with a ladder leading upward, Peeta leaps up it to deal with whatever may be lurking on the other side. When he's out of earshot, Finnick fixes his bayonet and tells the others to go on, that he can hold the narrow defile alone. It's the logical choice, Finnick is second only to Peeta in hand-to-hand combat. He can buy enough time for the others to escape, to complete the mission without him.

The others are conflicted but they can hear fighting at the top of the tunnel. Boggs, Mitchell and Holmes climb the ladder in turn but Gale has to practically force Katniss to go. When they reach the top, they encounter only the bodies of lizardmen. Peeta is nowhere to be found and Katniss looks down, desperately hoping to see Finnick coming up behind her. There's only Gale and when she looks at him questioningly, he just shakes his head. She shines a light down anyway and sees the things crowding around Finnick.

She can see it all flash before her eyes, the mutts surrounding Finnick, moving inside the reach of his bayoneted rifle. One of them reaching forward, biting the neck, Finnick's eyes going blank.

But none of that happens. A red, white and blue shape comes out of nowhere and dispatches the lizard men with ease. After Finnick has climbed the ladder, Peeta joins him with a few scales missing from his uniform and the paint on his shield chipped in various places. He takes a breath and then, lightly but earnestly says "Next time, we stay together."

~A~

They quickly reach the center of the facility and find it filled with tanks containing smaller versions of the reptilian creatures they encountered before. Each tank contains one such creature suspended in some foul-smelling liquid. There are only a few minutes to explore this strange and disturbing environment before they find that they are not alone.

They are pinned down by a hail of darts, all save Peeta, who carries his own cover. He can see that their enemies are strangely-garbed, each wearing a mask that appears to be made of snakeskin. He closes the gap and reduces the stream of darts by knocking out several of the shooters.

But then he finds himself nearly surrounded by enemies with other weapons. One of them has what appear to be giant fangs attached to her hands and feet. Another carries a whip that moves as if it were a live snake. One of them does not even appear to be human; her arms move like boa constrictors, seeking limbs to wrap around and crush.

The others are little help; they are still under fire, limited in ammunition and it's rare that they can get a clear shot into the swirling melee anyway. But Katniss isn't content to leave it at that; she finds a pillar in the corner of the room that leads up to some scaffolding.

She's a natural climber, strong, lightweight, agile and experienced beyond her years. This was her greatest weapon as a hunter, the ability to find vantage points where her prey wouldn't expect her, to reach the nests of birds and provide her family with eggs and to escape other predators too heavy to climb to the lightest branches of the treetops.

She makes it just in time to see that Captain America is winning the fight against the man and the woman in front of him but while he concentrates on them, another masked man has stealthily crept behind him and is raising a short spear with a tip that is tinged green.

Katniss doesn't hesitate to take the shot. Just as Captain America turns around, having dispatched his two opponents, he finds another, with an arrow shot straight through his heart. The last few of these serpentine enemies put up scant resistance and soon the Army is in possession of a second Hydra facility.

When they have time to examine the equipment and interrogate the prisoners, it doesn't feel like a victory. They find documents about projects conducted at other facilities, weapons they have no defense for. Many of them are worrisome, but none more than those being developed by Snow personally. They learn that he is on the verge of developing an infectious agent of unprecedented contagion and mortality, a plague that could devastate the allied nations like a new black death.

The only silver lining in this grim news is that they finally know where to find Snow. Perhaps subconsciously influenced by his surname, he has built his headquarters in a _Schloss_ in the Austrian Alps.

**Notes: Another similarity between Captain America and Peeta Mellark is that they both have allies with dark hair who are known for being good shots. Katniss as Mockingbird is probably the most original thing in this story, though I suppose that's not saying much. I wasn't aware of this when I came up with the name, but there actually is an Avenger named Mockingbird; she doesn't really have anything to with the character in this story. This story's Mockingbird is sort of an amalgamation of Peggy Carter and Bucky from the Captain America film, Hawkeye and Falcon from the comics and, of course, Katniss as the Mockingjay. **


	5. Chapter 5

**V**

There isn't time to make many plans; Snow can't be allowed to complete his project. And in the end, there's little information to work with anyway; they know practically nothing about Snow's fortress save its location, which is deep enough into Axis territory that the Army can only hope to send the smallest force to infiltrate it. There will be no supporting battalion of infantry this time.

To allow so small a force to overcome so great an obstacle, Beetee quickly synthesizes a powerful explosive. He teaches Gale how to set and detonate the charges, any one of which could bring a _Schloss_ down on the heads of those inside, provided that it's placed in the very heart of the castle, near one of the central load-bearing pillars.

Peeta wanted to be the one to carry the charges, to let the others cause a distraction for him. But the top brass at the Army nixed that immediately. Their plan is that Captain America leads one team to cause a distraction, Gale and a few guards take advantage of the chaos to plant the charges. That first team might be able to escape the blast but there's little chance of the second team making it out alive. To the Army, it's a simple proposition; they have millions of ordinary privates but are still unable to produce a second super soldier. Besides, who could cause a bigger distraction than Captain America?

Two nights before the mission, Peeta wants, no, needs to talk to Gale. But for once in his life, words don't come easily to him. They sit in silence at the table until Peeta asks "Gale, why'd you volunteer?"

Gale laughs a little. "Why'd I join the Army? How do I even tell? Because I'm a red-blooded American boy and I want to kick Adolf Hitler right in the seat of his pants. Because the Army pays more than the mines and being here means mom can afford milk for Posy. Because I'm nineteen and I'm not crippled so it's not like Uncle Sam was going to give me a choice anyway."

Of course they both know that isn't what Peeta meant. He and Gale stare into each other's eyes for just a moment before Peeta says "I don't see how you're going to make it out after those charges are set."

It's a morbid conversation but Gale smiles in reply. "You know any other guy in your position would shake my hand and say _bon voyage_. But you can't, can you? You're worried about how she's going to take it."

"She loves you. She can't just-"

Gale shakes his head violently. "She's going to have to! Did you ever win one of those chess matches of yours without sacrificing a piece? This is war; if I have to bring that wreck down on my own head, I'll do it. I'd expect the next guy to do the same."

Peeta can tell that Gale's telling the truth, but there's an image he can't get out of his mind. "Just like your father."

Gale nods casually. "My old man and Katniss' died for nothing, spent fifteen years breaking their backs in a mine because they didn't see any other way and then died for nothing. But this is different. This war could change things. People seeing some 'redskin' like me in Army; that could change things."

Peeta nods absentmindedly. He can see the soundness of the Army's plan; to them, Gale is their least valuable piece. But there's another move on the board.

~A~

He considers trying to talk to the others about it, but he knows they wouldn't accept his plan. So instead he waits until they're on the plane that will drop them within a few miles of the castle. Unlike the others, he's already wearing his parachute; but they don't think anything of it, he's always going out of his way to be prepared.

They're taken completely by surprise when he casually gets up, takes the small satchel of explosive charges, shoves an envelope into Katniss' hand. She only has a few seconds to look at him questioningly before he opens the door and leaps into the sky.

He waits until the exact right moment to pull the parachute and as he gently floats down to the earth, he imagines her reading his letter.

_Katniss,_

_I hope you can understand why I'm doing this. I don't want any of you to die in my place. This is what I was meant for; I can reach the center of the castle and bring it down. This was entirely my decision and I don't want any of you to blame yourselves. The rest of you all have someone back home who needs you. No one needs me. _

_Love, Peeta._

But it's all limited to his, admittedly vivid, imagination. Because Katniss never read the letter. She dropped it in favor of her parachute as soon as she saw him open the door and eight seconds after he jumped, she followed him.

He makes rapid progress through the snow-covered trees, slowed only when he encounters more of Hydra's creatures. At first they appear to be unusually large wolves; but wolves don't rear up on their hind legs and gesture to each other. They fight with an almost human intelligence but their tools are limited, eventually Captain America leaves a pile of them, dead or unconscious, behind him. Twenty minutes later, Katniss gives them a cursory glance before continuing to follow his trail.

He climbs the walls of the castle with amazing agility and descends on the garrison from the roof like a winter storm, striking and moving on before the patrols of guards can respond. And his plan seems to be working, he descends further, moves closer to his target; he's actually considering planting the charges when he stops suddenly. There's a guard slumped in the corner with an arrow sticking out of this chest.

He can follow her trail by the sounds of alarm, dropping the satchel, he barrels through the hallways until he finds her pinned down by submachinegun fire. He defeats her opponents easily, but it takes time. By the time it's finished, he's fighting from atop a pile of white uniforms.

Katniss hugs him tightly, but after they're each assured that the other is safe, she pulls back and hisses "That was a great job obeying orders, Captain America."

"Maybe they'll cashier me and I can die as Peeta Mellark."

"And that's your plan? To die heroically?" she asks with her voice breaking.

"Katniss, the Army's plan was for Gale to die down here. He's got his whole family to look after! My parents, my brothers, sure, they'll be sad, but they'll get over it. They don't need me."

"I need you!"

He tries to protest but she silences him with her lips. For a time they lose themselves in the feeling of being so close to each other. The sensations are new to both of them, this hunger that only grows worse as they feed it; even in the drafty halls of stone, they feel almost unbearably warm.

They pull apart suddenly when they're started by the sound of thunder off in the distance. Without discussing it, without any idea what they'll do when it comes time to plant the charges and at least one of them must die, they continue on. Because they have to, because the mission is too important, because they're both dead anyway if they don't keep moving.

In the end, they don't even get a chance to argue about it. They step through a doorway to be confronted by a veritable firing squad of men with rifles trained on them. And just behind them a harmless-looking old man who inclines his head and asks, "Now my dear Mr. Mellark, you aren't going to be difficult are you?"

When Peeta shakes his head, Snow continues "I thought not. No one who worked so diligently to save her would throw her life away with both hands. You know I really am quite grateful for your desire to shield her. I'm not at all certain that my men could have overcome you alone. The people we love can be our greatest burdens; we will do things for their sake that would otherwise horrify us."

~A~

They are bound and taken deeper into the fortress. Peeta spends the entire trip thinking about breaking his bonds and catching their captors by surprise, but the MP-40 submachine guns trained on him and Katniss stay his hand. When they reach a large and gaudily-decorated office, Snow addresses Captain America.

"They must have told you that Aurelius was my student. You know I was as shocked as anyone when his formula produced you. Unfortunately, my attempts to reproduce that haven't been any more successful than your own people's. There must be something unique about your blood chemistry…" He shakes his head, as if he woke from some daydream. "Pardon me; genetics is such a fascinating subject for me."

Peeta eventually grows impatient with this monologue. "You could have killed us before. What do you want from us?"

"How very direct, your Dutch blood comes to the forefront. What I want, Mr. Mellark, is the exact location of each of your organization's bases here in Europe. I'm afraid that our aerial surveillance has been somewhat curtailed in recent years. But I'm sure that this won't be difficult for you, they say that you have a remarkable memory."

"And if I refuse?"

Snow gives them a sickening smile. "Well, I think you will find that I'm prepared for every eventuality." He instructs his men to raise Katniss above a pit of flaming coals. "It's so obvious, you know, your infatuation with this mongrel amazon of yours. And being burned alive really is the most terrible way to die. I'm quite certain that you won't let that happen."

So is Katniss and that thought burns her more painfully than any fire. She wanted nothing more than to help Peeta and now he might give up everything that he'd fought for to save her. But as Peeta hesitates, the winch lowers her and she finds that her suit protects her from the worst of the fire. She puts on a great show of moaning in agony, but Peeta, who knows every sound she makes better than anyone, can easily tell that it's all an act.

As Snow grows impatient, his breathing quickens and the stench of blood fills the room. The winch lowers her until she can stir the coals with the toes of her boots, tongues of flame licking up her suit. The idea springs into her mind fully formed in an instant; she moves one of the coals onto the tip of her right boot while keeping up just enough of the act to divert any suspicions. Then, when Snow angrily turns to face her, she kicks the flaming coal directly into his face.

It bursts apart on impact and Snow's entire head is briefly shrouded in flame. Katniss can see the entire gruesome spectacle, with the flesh burned off, the blood and muscle are drawn so tautly that his head appears to be nothing but a red skull.

His minions forget about everything else as they try desperately to save him. He's clearly beyond any help but they refuse to accept that. Without the guns trained them, Peeta snaps his bonds and yanks Katniss down and away from the flames. A split-second after this registers with the guards, he's knocked them out with a blow a piece.

His shield and her bow are on Snow's desk where he was admiring them, but they can't find the satchel of explosives so easily and they have to keep moving. They pass through a maze of stone-arched hallways but don't dare stop to try to orient themselves; somewhere further down there must be some way to end the work Snow began. In the confusion they work their way through the halls until they stumble onto the laboratory. Quickly Peeta douses the floor with organic solvents and sets them alight. The noxious smoke filling the air only adds the confusion as they make their escape.

They flee up to ground level, unsure of which exit to try until they hear familiar voices off in the distance. When they make their way through the smoke-filled halls, they find Boggs, Mitchell, Holmes, Finnick and Gale subduing some of the disoriented Hydra guards.

Finnick greets them with a smile. "Well thank God you avoided the worst of the smoke. I wasn't exactly looking forward to giving you mouth-to-mouth, blue-eyes."

They move quickly after that, escaping the castle before any more of the wooden support beams go up in flames. The plane that brought them over lies in a small valley not far away. Thanks to another of Beetee's feats of engineering, it can take off with only a grassy field for a runway, spiriting them back from behind enemy lines.

They can hear the thunder of anti-aircraft guns off in the distance as Peeta remarks "It's going to be a rough ride." Katniss straps herself in next to Peeta as if she thinks he'll jump out again. She grips his hand tightly in hers, turns to him and pleads with soft eyes, "Stay with me."

Without a second's hesitation, he replies "Always."

~A~

To the world, the story that follows this one is that of Captain America and the Mockingbird and their service to their country during and after the war. But there is another story behind that public façade; that of the life Peeta Mellark and Katniss Everdeen, later Mellark, had together when they weren't wearing costumes. The story of how they dealt with the horrors of war will never find its way into a USO poster, but to those that knew them best, the story they didn't share with the world is the only one that really mattered.

Years later, their children are asleep down the hall but she can still hear the echoes of those anti-aircraft guns in the nighttime thunder. The scene repeats itself, as it has countless times before; she clings to him and whispers "Stay with me". She's not awake enough to hear his response, but she doesn't have to be, it never changes.

~Fin~

**Notes: I had a hard time getting from Peeta jumping out of the plane to the confrontation with Snow; the "action" scenes just don't come naturally to me. Getting them from the laboratory to the end of the story wasn't much easier. I decided against an epilogue chapter, but this looks like the perfect set-up for an "Avengers" style sequel including Peeta as Captain America, Katniss as Mockingbird, Beetee in a powered Iron-man suit, Finnick being granted the powers of Neptune by a magical trident and Johanna has a former spy in a catsuit with trust issues as "The Victors". Hopefully I'll get some work done on my canon fics before I end up writing that. **


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